First Ever Evidence of a
Comet Striking Earth (Source: Science Daily)
The first ever evidence of a comet entering Earth’s atmosphere and
exploding, raining down a shock wave of fire which obliterated every
life form in its path, has been discovered by a team of South African
scientists and international collaborators. The comet entered Earth’s
atmosphere above Egypt about 28 million years ago.

As it entered the atmosphere, it exploded, heating up the sand beneath
it to a temperature of about 2 000 degrees Celsius, and resulting in
the formation of a huge amount of yellow silica glass which lies
scattered over a 6 000 square kilometer area in the Sahara. A
magnificent specimen of the glass, polished by ancient jewellers, is
found in Tutankhamun's brooch with its striking yellow-brown scarab.
(10/8)

NASA Flunked its Cloud
Computing Audit. Are You Next? (Source: Computer World UK)
Ok, so NASA failed an audit. Don’t we all? I think it is important to
understand the government’s cloud computing adoption timeline before
passing judgment on NASA for failing to meet its cloud computing
requirements. As someone who has read NASA’s risk management program
(and the 600 pages of supporting documentation), I can say that this
wasn’t a failure of risk management policy or procedure effectiveness.

Clearly, this was a failure of third-party risk management’s monitoring
and review of cloud services. Back in 2009, NASA pioneered cloud
technology with a shipping container-based public cloud technology
project named Nebula -- after the stellar cloud formation. During 2009,
NASA, to determine if current cloud provider service offerings had
matured enough to support the Nebula environment, did a study. The
study proved that commercial cloud services had, in fact, become
cheaper and more reliable than Nebula.

NASA, as a result of the study, moved more than 140 applications to the
public sector cloud environment. In October of 2010, Congress had
committee hearings on cybersecurity and the risk associated with cloud
adoption. But remember, NASA had already moved its non-critical data
(like www.nasa.gov or the daily video feeds from the international
space station, that are edited together and packaged as content for the
NASA website) to the public cloud in 2009. That is before anyone ever
considered the rules for such an adoption of these services. (10/8)

Cygnus Status Update
(Source: Orbital)
The Expedition 37 crew aboard the International Space Station has
completed unloading the cargo from the Cygnus Pressurized Cargo Module
(PCM) Cygnus and has loaded the first layer of waste for disposal. The
crew will be working this week loading the second layer of trash. The
third layer is expected to be loaded the week of 10/14, followed by PCM
close out. Unberthing from the station is expected on October 22, with
reentry into Earth's atmosphere on October 24. (10/8)

Virgin Galactic Was a
Total Punt, Says Richard Branson (Source: Telegraph)
Sir Richard has admitted that he didn’t have a clue about space travel,
or even how he would raise the money to start the business when he
registered the name “Virgin Galactic”. “It was 10 years ago and I knew
nothing about space travel or building rockets,” he said. “I just said,
'I’m going to find someone who can build us a rocket and send people
into space’.”

“Of course, when you’ve already had some successes behind you, it’s
much easier to raise the money to make it happen,” he added. Sir
Richard confirmed that Virgin Galactic is now just three months away
from having a fully-functioning rocket that is capable of taking
passengers into orbit. (10/8)

Higgs Boson Physicists
Snag Nobel Prize (Source: Space.com)
The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to two physicists who
predicted the existence of the elusive Higgs boson particle, which is
thought to explain why other particles have mass, the committee
announced today (Oct. 8). Two teams of scientists at the world's
largest atom smasher, CERN's Large Hadron Collider, announced last year
they had discovered a new particle that was likely the Higgs boson. The
particle's identity was then confirmed earlier this year. (10/8)

Gravity’s Space-Diaper
Fiasco (Source: Daily Beast)
Although movie critics gave Gravity, the new film featuring Sandra
Bullock and George Clooney, generally positive reviews, astrophysicist
Neil deGrasse Tyson had a bone to pick with producers over some
scientific inaccuracies. The most pressing matter, Tyson pointed out,
was the absence of Maximum Absorbency Garments—or adult space diapers.
(10/8)

Why a Sixth-Grader Wants
to Brew Beer in Space (Source: CS Monitor)
Mankind may be one step closer to getting extraterrestrial breweries –
thanks to an eleven-year-old. Michal Bodzianowski, 11, is among the
winners of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education’s
Student Spaceflight Experiments Program, which sends student
experiments to the International Space Station. His project, "What Are
the Effects of Creation of Beer in Microgravity and Is It Possible?,”
will be ferried upward this November as part of the program's "Mission
4."

Bodzianowski, a sixth-grader at the STEM School and Academy in
Colorado’s Douglas County School District, says he wants to find out if
it’s possible to brew beer in space, mixing crushed malted barley,
bottled water, and yeast. It's an idea that he says could help in
developing backup water supplies for future extraterrestrial colonies,
since alcohol is lethal to bacteria. (10/8)

Spaceports on Agenda at
Smart Airports Conference (Source: Airport World)
Warnings about the dangers of losing State aid for Europe’s smaller
airports, a possible 2029 opening date for a new Thames Estuary Airport
in London, and the launch of a Spaceport at Curaçao Airport in 2014,
were all on the agenda during the opening sessions of the SMART
Airports Conference in Munich today.

Simon Kloppenburg, commercial developer airport development with
Curaçao Airport, revealed that the gateway would open its own Spaceport
next year in a move designed to help boost its non-aeronautical
revenues. He said that operator, XCOR Aerospace, would launch
commercial space flights from the airport in 2014, and that more than
250 people had already signed up for sub-orbital flights from the
Caribbean airport. (10/8)

New Falcon 9 Falls Short
On Stage Functions (Source: Aviation Week)
SpaceX engineers will have some changes to make on the company's new
Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle before its next mission, following lessons
learned from its Sep. 29 demonstration flight. A preliminary test of a
reusable-booster concept intended to hold down costs showed the need
for more work after an uncontrollable spin apparently hampered
pre-spashdown braking. The vehicle also aborted a planned restart of
its upper-stage engine during the otherwise successful debut of the
upgraded rocket. (10/7)

XCOR Transitions to
Midland, Awaits Spaceport License (Source: My West Texas)
XCOR Aerospace still plans to move to Midland, but its chief operating
officer acknowledged the move is taking longer than expected. Despite
Midland International Airport’s lack of spaceport designation license,
Andrew Nelson, COO and vice president of business development for XCOR,
said he is confident the situation will get better.

He said the spaceport license process has been a coordinated effort
with no pushback, but then the government shutdown affected the Federal
Aviation Administration, the agency responsible for granting spaceport
licenses. Nelson also explained that the license application itself is
complicated because it requires several components such as a physical
security plan and an emergency response plan.

As of now, the application is at the environmental assessment phase, as
previously reported. So in the interim, XCOR has made several measures
to make its transition from Mojave, Calif., to Midland. The company is
currently evaluating proposals and negotiating with local contractors
for hangar renovations at the airport. Continuing its presence on the
local community, XCOR has also hired five employees from Midland and
plan to hire more in the next few months. The company has also made
agreements with local suppliers. (10/8)

Spaceport Colorado Lands
Agreement with Swiss Space Company (Source: Denver Post)
Spaceport Colorado will serve as Swiss Space Systems' North American
headquarters, marking the first foreign-based company to commit to the
regional enterprise and helping to validate the effort. The
Switzerland-based company, known as S3, signed a memorandum of
understanding with representatives from the Colorado coalition after
meeting with the team last month.

Spaceport Colorado is a statewide initiative to create an aerospace hub
at Front Range Airport in Adams County that is designed to attract
high-tech research, commercial space development and eventually the
creation of a horizontal launch pad for space transport. But the
enterprise is currently undergoing feasibility and environmental
studies and still must gain approval from the FAA. (10/8)

'Huge Milestone' Coming
for SLS (Source: America Space)
In August, the Space Launch System Program (SLS) passed its Preliminary
Design Review (PDR). The next major milestone for the program is Key
Decision Point C (KDP-C). If SLS passes this decision point, it will
progress from the formulation phase to the implementation phase of the
program. It is not known how the current government shutdown will
affect the timing of KDP-C. Most NASA websites are not operating during
the shutdown, nor are public affairs offices.

KDP-C is the last major go-no-go point in the program’s development
life-cycle. Once NASA grants permission for SLS to proceed, it becomes
far less likely that the program will be cancelled. A program that has
reached the implementation phase, particularly if it has some political
momentum, stands a much better chance of surviving, even if it goes
over budget. (10/8)

Swiss Space Systems to
Launch 28 Satellites for Spacepharma (Source: Parabolic
Arc)
The aerospace company S3 and the Spacepharma SA enterprise, specialised
in solutions for medical experiments in microgravity, announce today
the signature of a contract relating to the launch of four small
satellites in 2018, followed by a monthly launch over two years, making
a total of 28 planned launches.

This is an important step for S3, who is also in advanced discussions
in relation to other launches. Spacepharma intends to become a world
leader in the market for researches into microgravity for the life
science industries. In S3, the company has found a partner which will
permit it to place its satellites in orbit thanks to its system, which
is efficient, flexible, reliable, and economical.

With the Research & Development phase of its satellite launch
system well advanced, S3 announces today the signature of a significant
launch contract with Spacepharma SA, the Swiss company specialised in
laboratory solutions in microgravity for the life science industries.
This contract relates to putting four small satellites into orbit in
2018, followed by one satellite per month for a period of two years.
(10/8)

Space Florida and UCF
Plan Tech Business Competition (Source: Space Florida)
Space Florida and the University of Central Florida (UCF) announced a
call for applications by companies interested in participating in an
event that will match financing sources with small, high-tech
businesses based in Florida. The "CAT5 Awards," (which stands for
"Capital for the Acceleration of Technologies in early stage companies)
will showcase 10 selected companies in an event that will enable them
to present their business cases to venture capitalists, angel investors
and financiers, among others.

In addition to having the opportunity to present to potential funding
sources, the top two business plans will receive $150,000 in monetary
awards - with first place receiving $100,000 and second place receiving
$50,000, both through Space Florida sponsorship. (10/8)

Quick Fusion-Powered
Trips to Mars No Fantasy, Scientists Say (Source:
Space.com)
Sending astronauts to Mars aboard a superfast spacecraft powered by
nuclear fusion may seem like a sci-fi dream, but it's entirely
attainable, scientists say. The physics behind a fusion-driven rocket
have been demonstrated in the laboratory, so such a device may well be
propelling people on 90-day trips to the Red Planet in a matter of
decades, according to a team of researchers working on the technology.
(10/7)

Hawaii, Alaska Partner Up
on Space Exploration Efforts (Source: Honolulu Civil Beat)
Hawaii and Alaska officials came together today at the state Capitol to
sign a memorandum of understanding outlining the states’ plans to join
forces on aerospace activities serving the Pacific region. The two
states “are geographically situated to provide rapid, focused, and
cost-effective aerospace services,” a Hawaii Office of Aerospace
Development press release says.

Hawaii for its part is strategically located, has Moon- and Mars-like
terrain, is home to a cohort of aerospace experts and maintains
long-standing ties with Asia-Pacific countries that invest in space
exploration. Alaska, through the Alaska Aerospace Corporation, owns and
operates its own spaceport complex.

The agreement comes on the heels of Act 169, which was signed into law
by Gov. Neil Abercrombie last June and gave the Department of Business,
Economic Development and Tourism oversight of the state’s space
exploration endeavors. Soon after, he released $275,000 in capital
improvement funds to plan and prepare for state aerospace projects.
(10/8)

Russia Could Build Manned
Lunar Base (Source: Space Daily)
The federal space agency Roscosmos has launched a feasibility study of
a project to build a manned base on the Moon, Academician Lev Zelyony,
director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Space Research Institute,
said on Friday. "Our nearest task within the limits of the planning
horizon is the construction of a piloted outpost on the Moon. A working
group was recently set up at the order of Roscosmos's head Vladimir
Popovkin," Zelyony said. (10/8)

Inmarsat to Purchase
Fourth Inmarsat-5 Satellite From Boeing (Source: Space
Daily)
The fourth Inmarsat-5 satellite will have a dual strategic role.
Initially the satellite will serve to provide an early available spare
in the unlikely event of a launch failure of any of the first three
Inmarsat-5 satellites. As a result, Inmarsat will be able to achieve
global service launch for Global Xpress ("GX") more rapidly than if a
replacement satellite were only commissioned following a launch
failure. (10/8)

Apollo Landing Remembered
as a Promise of a 'Future Which Never Happened' (Source:
Space Daily)
Footage of the first moon landing promised a future of sci-fi heroism
that never came to pass, according to a new study. The first moon
landing is overwhelmingly remembered as an exciting and important
turning point in world history, which continues to inspire space
exploration projects to Mars and beyond today.

However, the new study shows how NASA used images of the 1969 Apollo 11
moon landing to develop a narrative of its own importance for the
future. The academics claim NASA carefully selected footage to present
Neil Armstrong and his fellow astronauts as pioneering "cowboys"
supported by "technological efficiency". NASA's shots of the astronauts
walking purposefully towards the launch bay - repeated regularly in TV
coverage of the landing - were carefully crafted to mimic the slow walk
of Cowboys in the cinematic tradition of Westerns, they argue. (10/8)

Higgs Boson’s Effects on
Universe Boosted (Source: Science News)
Higgs particles may get an upgrade from by-product to big player in the
explanation of how the universe ended up with more matter than
antimatter. They could also explain one possible way dark matter was
made. New calculations suggest that if an early-universe imbalance
existed between the Higgs boson and its antiparticle, then the
resulting physical processes could account for how the universe
developed more matter than antimatter. The Higgs may also have decayed
into dark matter and influenced how densely packed the material is in
the cosmos. (10/7)

Texas Rep. Meets With JSC
Employees to Support Restoring NASA Funding (Source: Steve
Stockman)
The office of Congressman Steve Stockman Monday gladly met with local
NASA employees to discuss the effects of the government shutdown and
Obama administration funding cuts to NASA. “With a wife who is a JSC
employee I know better than most how important full NASA funding is and
how many hits JSC employee have taken under Obama,” said Stockman.

“I’ve been voting since Day One to keep NASA fully funded and to end
the government shutdown. We’ve been voting as late as 1:00
a.m. to end the shutdown, but the Democrat-run Senate hasn’t held a
vote since September,” said Stockman. “Our calls from JSC employees
this week are about nine to one in favor of standing strong against
Obama’s budget.”

“I’ve also led the fight to restore the billions Obama cut from JSC
operations. We get more return on NASA than nearly any other
agency and we need expand out investment in it,” said Stockman.
Stockman also opposed Obama’s proposal for sequestration of NASA
funding. Stockman proposed an alternative to sequester that would fully
restore NASA funds. (10/7)

Trolls Gonna Troll While
NASA is Away (Source: Houston Chronicle)
A curious website purported to be affiliated with NASA went live last
week just as the government shutdown whittled the space agency down to
a skeleton crew. The site was heralding the announcement of “The
biggest discovery that will shake the earth, It will never be the same
again.” That made most ears and fingers perk up on social media. How
about a line like “NASA has made a historic discovery that will shake
the entire planet”?

Obviously none of us could ring up a spokesperson at NASA proper and
get a word on it since anyone who could answer any questions about it
has turned off their government-issued Blackberry phones and gone home.
Initially, the site was hyping up an announcement set for Nov. 13, but
as the site went viral and everyone on the Internet began writing about
it, the said the special announcement would be moved up to Oct. 6. The
site was built on Oct. 1, the day before the shutdown, and the domain
name came from namecheap.com.

Monday morning I came into the office and checked out
http://www.rememberthe13th.com to find that it linked to a music video
and song called “Purple Ninja” by Beeki Vendi. It didn’t even have the
decency to be catchy either, like the Korean pop song with the horses
or that other one about letting the dogs out. All those dreams of alien
life and futuristic rocketry — sweet dreams and flying machines in
pieces on the ground. (10/7)

Editorial: Orbital Makes
Good with Cygnus (Despite Congress) (Source: Space News)
Washington was an important milestone in NASA’s effort to commercialize
human spaceflight and related operations in low Earth orbit: the Sep.
29 berthing of Orbital Sciences Corp.’s Cygnus cargo capsule with the
space station. The accomplishment stands out in stark contrast to the
entrenched fecklessness of the U.S. Congress, in particular the House
of Representatives, which orchestrated a paralyzing federal government
shutdown that has hit NASA especially hard.

More than 90 percent of the space agency’s 18,000-strong workforce has
been forced on unpaid furlough. Thankfully, NASA — with no help from
Capitol Hill — found a way to resume preparations for the planned
November launch of a $670 million Mars mission that had been
temporarily halted by the shutdown. Had it missed this launch
opportunity, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission would
have had to wait two more years for its next window.

Congress’ failure to pass a simple spending bill to keep the government
running represents yet another dereliction of duty for a group that
seems to never miss an opportunity to sink to a new low. Among the
ironic injustices of it all is that while the vast majority of NASA
employees are having their paychecks clipped, these so-called lawmakers
will continue to draw their handsome, taxpayer-funded salaries. (10/7)

Editorial: American Human
Spaceflight Floundering (Source: Space News)
The ultimate goal is Mars. To do what exactly, and for how long, is
unknown. The path has varied wildly across the past two U.S.
administrations. The George W. Bush administration would have had us
return to the Moon and use it as a springboard for Mars. Funds
sufficient to accomplish this were never requested.

Faced with a depressed economy, the Barack Obama administration decided
to scrap the Moon plans, and the balloon payment needed, and send
astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid in the 2020s. The long-duration
spaceflight would support the future Mars goal. Suddenly, the
administration changed gears and decided to capture a small asteroid
and bring it back to lunar orbit for subsequent exploration by
astronauts — or maybe not. The objectives are not clear.

A workshop of experts met recently in Washington to review and discuss
the Asteroid Retrieval Mission (ARM). It is apparent that the mission
is poorly conceived and lacking in basic planning, and carries huge
cost and schedule risk that is more dumb than heroic. NASA may not know
it yet, but ARM is dead, and the future of American human spaceflight
is again in question. Perhaps it is time to move away from stunt as
policy — a tragic legacy of the Apollo program. (10/7)

Shutdown Prompts
Aerospace Corp. to Furlough More than Half its Workforce
(Source: Space News)
The Aerospace Corp., the federally funded not-for-profit research
center that provides engineering advice on U.S. Air Force space
programs, furloughed more than 2,000 workers as the result of a
government shutdown, according to an Oct. 7 press release. The work
stoppages began Oct. 3. Workers involved in mission-critical tasks –
such as near-term activities in launch operations and support,
resolution of on-orbit anomalies, and execution of ongoing satellite
flight operations – were exempt from the furlough. (10/7)

Quick Fusion-Powered
Trips to Mars No Fantasy (Source: Space.com)
Sending astronauts to Mars aboard a superfast spacecraft powered by
nuclear fusion may seem like a sci-fi dream, but it's entirely
attainable, scientists say. The physics behind a fusion-driven rocket
have been demonstrated in the laboratory, so such a device may well be
propelling people on 90-day trips to the Red Planet in a matter of
decades, according to a team of researchers working on the technology.
(10/7)

Life Harder to Find on
Exoplanets Than Previously Thought (Source: (Xinhua)
Finding life on exoplanets, or planets outside the solar system, may be
more difficult than people thought, researchers from China, the United
States and Argentina said Monday. Current efforts to find a second
Earth focus on so-called M dwarfs or red dwarfs, stars that are smaller
than the Sun but make up more than 75 percent of the stars in the solar
neighborhood. High levels of atmospheric oxygen are considered the most
promising indicator for life on exoplanets.

However, recent observations of several planet-hosting M dwarfs showed
that the ultraviolet (UV) properties of these small stars are quite
different from those of the Sun, which could further complicate the
search for alien life, the researchers said. The atmosphere of a
hypothetical habitable planet around an M dwarf star could build up
significant levels of oxygen even in the absence of life. (10/8)

ILS Regains Confidence in
Proton-M Booster (Source: America Space)
Only days after the spectacular 29 September return to flight of the
troubled Proton-M booster, International Launch Services (ILS) is
gearing up for its next mission in two weeks’ time. The three-stage
Proton and its Briz-M upper stage is reportedly scheduled to liftoff
from Pad 39 at Site 200 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at
12:13 a.m. local time on 21 October. (10/8)